What in the hell? Sorry, I mean "what in the Limbo?"
In his quest to understand humanity the mighty Beyonder draws forth the demonic essence of mutant sorceress Magik revealing the Darkchilde within her.
Oh, okay! While the majority of the figures in this Secret Wars line have been updates of ones from the 1980s Mattel line, not all of them have been; however, in in cases like that, the character at least appeared in Secret Wars. Magik, meanwhile, never had anything to do with Secret Wars in any way, shape, or form - it wasn't until Secret Wars II that the Beyonder encountered the New Mutants, so it's slightly weird to put this figure on Secret Wars 1-branded packaging. It does open up a lot of possibilities, though, since SWII took place mostly on Earth, and so impacted more than just a handful of heroes and villains.
There's been a Marvel Legends Magik before, but that was her modern "gothy hotpants" version (a look that's much more famous now than it was then, thanks to Marvel Rivals adapting it). This one
is her old school New Mutants training uniform, which is basically the X-Men's original uniform, just with black instead of blue. Or maybe that's "just black, like it was always supposed to be." Fittingly, for a teenager, Magik uses the teen body with a few adjustments. Although the belt is separate, as it is on all the characters who use this mold, her belly is molded with a notch the belt fits into, rather than floating free. She's the first to get folded boots like this, and her right forearm is molded with a glove. Her left arm is covered in medieval-style armor, and she has a pauldron on that shoulder.
If this face is not the same that the last Magik figure had, then Hasbro paid somebody to sculpt the most minor of differences imaginable. The shape
of the nose, the lines around her lips, the angle of the jaw... it all looks to be the same. Of course, the countenance looks better here, because painting has gotten much more impressive in the intervening decade. She's got pupils now, not just blank white eyes, and eyeshadow instead of a thing black line suggesting lashes. Her lipstick is even two-tone, with the upper lip darker than the lower lip. And that's to say nothing of the fact he hair looks nicer, too, with a finer, more detailed sculpt that retains her signature bangs but makes more of the individual strands of hair visible.
Like we said, her costume is yellow and black. Hasbro, being smart and good at their jobs, has molded the black parts from black plastic, and the yellow parts from yellow plastic - trying to paint yellow over
black would never work. The panels on her sides and a sliver of leg at the base of the pelvis do get painted black over yellow, which works fine as far as color-matching goes, but it does mean that if you happen to look at the figure from an angle other than directly in the front and slightly above, you're going to see flashes of yellow at the top of the leg. You could probably pop the legs off and paint the interior black yourself, if it bothers you. Unlike grown-up Magik, whose armor was dingy grey, younger Magik's is still a bright silver.
Magik has swivel/hinge ankles, swivel boots,
double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a balljoint chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a hinged/barbell neck. It's always nice when they use one of these older molds that hasn't had its articulation screwed up like newer ones have. Her long, straight hair does mean the head will barely move at all, and this extreme heatwave has made the shoulder and bicep joints feel a little gummy - be careful with those, lest you shear them before the weater breaks. You can either give her fists, or a right hand to hold accessories and a left hand that's splayed open.
Naturally, Illyana includes her Soulsword. It's the same sculpt the Book of Vishanti exclusive had - the small, sword-sized one, not the big Final Fantasy-sized one. It's painted nicely, with a silver blade, black hilt, and golden pommel and crossguard, and it even includes a translucent blue energy effect to make it look magical. That was first included with the Walgreens rerelease of Magik, which also had this same sword. The effect even has a little loop that slips over one side of the crossguard to prevent it from sliding off the sword, which is clever. It would have been cool, too, if they'd done some more removable armor - you know, pieces that could clip onto the body to show the way she got more and more armored over time. ToyBiz managed that in 1999, surely Hasbro could have managed in 2026.
The vintage Secret Wars toys each came with a lenticular shield that showed off events in the battle. These new figures homage that, and even remember to make the heroes' shields circular, as opposed to the villains' squares. Illyana's is reddish orange, and switches between a portrait of her as a civilian and as a superhero - which basically just means on one of them we can see the neckline of her costume, so it's not particularly impressive. If they really wanted to show off, they could have had the second one show her demonic Darkchild form.
Honestly, though, Hasbro could do a whole second Darkchild figure as a standalone release: goat legs, giant horns, a tail, all that. The ideal version would have been a Magik with swappable parts that let you turn her into Darkchild, but since they've already released this one as a Secret Wars figure, that idea is kind of out the window. This really is an excellent figure, though, and does the character justice. She'll be great with that Cypher that was announced mere hours after we predicted it, and there will probably be other characters on the way, too. It's just a shame that the Walgreens New Mutants set used a more modern costume, meaning those three girls won't be able to stand with Magik. And also that the X-Men '97 Sunspot uses a different shade of yellow, so he can't join the team, either.
-- 07/06/26
Do you want Hasbro to make a fully demonic version of Magik? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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